1.1 (the bumps) British informal (On a person’s birthday) a custom by which the person is lifted by the arms and legs and let down on to the ground, once for each year of their age:the children were given the bumps

Origen

Like bump (mid 16th century) and thump (mid 16th century), jump was probably formed because it ‘sounded right’, and seemed to express the sound of feet hitting the ground. It was first used around 1500. To jump the gun, or act too soon, comes from the idea of an athlete starting a race a split-second before they hear the starting gun. A jumpsuit was a term first used in the USA in the 1940s for the outfit worn by parachutists when making their jumps. Jumper (mid 19th century) is unrelated. In the 19th century it was a loose outer jacket worn by sailors and is now a woollen jersey in UK English, but a style of dress in the USA. It may come from Scots jupe, ‘a loose jacket or tunic’, which in turn came through French from Arabic jubba.

Frases

be bumping along the bottom

By contrast, the previous low in 1999 was reached while the price of oil was bumping along the bottom.

If you compare us to other schools in the Doncaster area we have gone from bumping along the bottom to now being in mid-table in Doncaster, yet we were placed into special measures.

With the US economy having been at best bumping along the bottom and media companies suffering from a drastic reduction in advertising revenue, American media moguls have more immediate issues on their mind than bids in Britain.

with a bump

Top-flight newcomers Brasenose came down to earth with a bump, losing 32-8 to a well-drilled Keble side who dominated a bad-tempered game in the University Parks this Tuesday.

Walton & Hersham won 6-1 at Chertsey last week, but they were brought down to earth with a bump by a 3-1 home defeat against Leatherhead on Saturday.

It's been the same for the past four years; over the nine summer weeks, I pass quickly through the Big Brother stages of boredom, rejection, revision, adulation and elation, only to come down to earth with a bump when it ends.

Verbos con partícula

bump someone off

If a human life begins at the moment of the fusion of the gametes, then experimenting on embryos and subsequently discarding them is morally equivalent to experimenting on human beings before bumping them off.

Ten strangers are trapped by a rainstorm at an isolated desert hotel and someone starts bumping them off until they eventually turn on each other.

Instead of bumping Ruby off, let the character develop-and hang on to Jesneck and Eustis.